MAC THE KNIFE

Despite having worked in the film and TV makeup/special effects business for quite some time, 36-year-old Craig McIntyre never owned a computer. But after editing his directorial debut “A Few Screws Loose” - an experimental horror film that was shot over the course of two years on a budget of $2,000 - he now does. This is good news for fans of underground cinema because hopefully his second feature, currently in preproduction, won’t take as long to get to big and small screens.

“A Few Screws Loose,” which features porn star Ava Rose, pinup model Chase Monroe and Jack Spralja of the rock band Underground Railroad to Candyland, had its world premiere in July at the New Beverly in Los Angeles. The odd, but extremely fun film doesn’t hit DVD until December, but recently played the Horror Society Film Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio in October. McIntrye’s revenge/comedy/ gorefest screened with the likes of Nick Palumbo’s “Murder Set Pieces,” Ryan Nicholson’s “Gutterballs,” Lou Vockell’s “Vagrant” and Fred Vogel’s latest “August Underground’s Penance.”

So what made this wizard of gore decide to take the leap from making people look as though they’ve been slashed up for other moviemakers to shooting and chopping his own films? Mac the Knife shares this and more in this Q&A drenched in blood and makeup.

CCF: First, I was curious about what made you make “A Few Screws Loose.” Prior to this you had a lot of behind the scenes experience, but this project was your baby. So was it the story, the want to direct or what exactly that drove you through the creative process?

CM: I was always a big fan of horror films and I did a good job with scary makeup as a kid. I wanted to do gory stuff so I started renting those giant VHS cameras from the video store, rounded up my friends and made movies. We made a zombie move, a trilogy of slasher movies, and a revenge movie, I basically ripped off “Rolling Thunder” for that one. This was in 1984 to 1988. I liked making movies and at the time a bunch of make-up F/X guys were directing so I figured it would be a way to get on set and that would be my film school. I did work on sets but mostly I was in warehouses huffing fumes. And a lot of times uninterested in the projects, so I went back to thinking I should make my own movies. I was even gonna do it on a giant VHS camcorder but then the digital age came and that’s when I borrowed a friends digital and shot “John’s Reality” - a Vietnam veteran revenge film with lots of blood and gore. Then I bought a camera and did “Nutcase,” a zombie movie. These were both short films 15 to 20 minutes long. After that I wanted to do a full feature.

CCF: Cool. So then you just dove right in with “A Few Screws Loose.” Now, you wrote it, edited it, directed it, you were the main camera operator, you did make-up F/X, set design, etc., etc. Was the title actually an inside joke about yourself for tackling such a feat? (LOL)

CM: Yeah, it kinda was! It fit the porn element of the story, it kinda sounds like a porn title, or a cool western like “For A Few Dollars More” or something? I knew the movie was full of crazy characters so I liked the title.

CCF: Yeah, it’s great title. And I understand the film took a number of years to complete. I’m sure there were times when you were like, “This just ain’t happening.” Take us through the process of making this film and some of the obstacles you had to overcome.

CM: There were some rough moments like when an actress got weird on me and demanded all this stuff. She wanted all the footage sent to her and other nonsense. And being that she flaked already and didn’t finish her role in the first place for me I fired her and re-shot all her stuff. It hurt the storyline a bit, but in low/no budget movie making you make things work. I couldn’t deal with an artistic terrorist. (LOL)

CCF: Now, the editing of the film is quite an interesting story. Talk about that a bit for us.

CM: I didn’t have an editing system when I started; I thought I would be able to talk an editor into doing it for me. Not a chance. I got an old buddy of mine from art school, Brian Petre to act as an executive producer and he produced it for me. The computer came in the mail. He sent me an e-mail to make sure I got it. I never even owned a computer before so learning the system took me about a year and I ran into technical problems and it put me a year or more off schedule from when I planned on finishing the movie.

CCF: You had never owned a computer? And so, Brian ordered you one?

CM: Yeah, he told me he was interested in helping out and we talked and decided the money would be best spent on an editing system that way I could be more self reliant. I think in like 1996 a buddy of mine gave me some old Mac from the eighties or something? I never did anything with it. The buddy ended up wanting it back to sell it. (LOL)

CCF: (LOL) Your budget was just a few thousand dollars. What was the most expensive part of the project?

CM: The extra hard drives were probably the most expensive thing. Tapes for shooting added up. I gave actors gas money and bought them food. I bought materials for the girl gang dresses but friends of mine who are great costume designers/ clothing designers made them for me. The FX work was done with old materials lying around, but the cost of Karo syrup did add up. There’s a lot of blood.

CCF: Yeah, blood, nudity and insanity. (LOL) Your movie is quite unconventional, but give us a quick plot run down if you could.

CM: “A Few Screws Loose” is a story about a lonely loser named Stuart who contacts a porno star he’s obsessed with and they have an affair. She goes missing and it’s not long until Extreme Eric and Johnny Hawthorne, San Fernando Valley porn kings come looking for him. Things haven’t been going well with Extreme Eric and Johnny’s porn films and they turn to making videos of a very illegal kind to supplement their income. When they find out Stuarts been hanging around one of there girls they are not happy about it. Now every scumbag in Los Angeles is out for his head. Stuart may have to put up a fight for the first time in his life. Will he survive?

CCF: I know the answer, but I won’t spoil anything. Talk about the casting some. I know you have a porn star and the frontman of a rock band in your cast. How did you go about getting your actors involved and what are your thoughts on their performances?

CM: I cast mainly friends or actors I met on other movies I worked on. Michael Palermo and Stan Yumbo I met on Piero Golia’s movie “Killer Shrimps.” I actually did find Randy Tobin and Dan Jablons on Craig’s List. It was worth it, even tough I had to filter through a hundred crazy people to get two cool guys. Randy Tobin is dedicated to his craft and he never gave me a hard time about scheduling shoots. He was always ready to go. I just e-mailed Ava Rose and asked her. I sent her some info and a short film and she was in. Jack Spralja I have known for a long time through seeing bands around Los Angeles. I met Trevi Williams through Michael Palermo and she was fantastic. I mostly like casting friends and friends of friends because most L.A. actors are not into the art of movie making. They just want to be famous because they are good looking. They usually get discouraged when they see you are not a big production and start flaking on you after the first day and a lot of times there not even good actors they’re just pretty and think they should be famous. As for the actors in “AFSL,” I think they all did a great job.

CCF: I loved Jack. He is fantastic. Work with him again soon. Now as far as genre, your film isn’t really a horror, but it sort of is. It has revenge elements and a lot of other things going on. What can movie fans expect from your film and who is sort of your target audience?

CM: Fueled with gore and hot girls, part art/experimental film, part horror/gore film, part true crime/revenge film, “AFSL” spills blood, disturbing uncomfortableness and dark humor for lots of fun for horror, gore, extreme cinema, exploitation and art house fans alike.

CCF: As far as the experimental aspects, where did those elements come from and specific inspirations?

CM: I wanted it to be different. I was in no way trying to emulate a Hollywood film whatsoever. I wanted it to be weird, fucked up, and make people scratch there heads. I like breaking all those silly little rules that film schools and the big studios made up and most of all I had a lot of fun doing it.

CCF: Well, you completely succeeded in making the film weird. (LOL) What I found most interesting is the film is quite funny. It deals with snuff filmmaking, extreme porn, a crazy guy with a machete, there’s a castration, limbs being lopped off, faces being smashed in, but somehow “AFSL” doesn’t seem to have a mean bone in its body. Was that part of the intention or did the atmosphere of the movie evolve as it went along?

CM: Yeah, I knew it would be funny. I think most avid horror fans will see the humor too. I have a dark sense of humor and I was born in Scotland so a lot of “Monty Python” and “Benny Hill” growing up. (LOL) I cant’ help it. People who only watch horror films on Halloween and on occasion find it a bit more abrasive, shocking, and graphic. Trust me I have been called sick, weird, strange, gross and perverted.

CCF: Yeah, well, I don’t see what that has to do with anything, but thanks for the confession. (LOL) “AFSL” has been compared to Shane Ryan’s “Amateur Porn Star Killer” and Lukas Moodysson’s “A Hole in my Heart.” While both of those are excellent movies and it is nice to be compared to great cinema, those are both disturbing and thought provoking looks at pornography. I see “AFSL” as more escapism than message driven. Were you at all trying to deliver any underlying messages?

CM: I wanted to tap into popular culture somehow so it would resonate with people. Everyone is familiar with porno. I actually was gonna make it a complete cinéma vérité movie. I decided against it because I didn’t want to be just limited to the killers POV. Plus, I knew the fake snuff genre was on the upswing. I wanted it to be a kind of realistic meets the absurd, this is realistic but then it goes over the top into B-movie slasher fest. I wasn’t trying to say anything bad about the porn industry or about the people who watch porn. The character of Extreme Eric is based on one particular creepy porno maker. If you know your porno, you will know who he is supposed to be like.

CCF: I have my suspicions on who he is based on, but I’ll just keep that to myself. Two of the things I really loved in the film are the color screens and the girl gang. Both felt slightly Stanley Kubrick inspired. Were they at all? If not were did those come from?

CM: The girl gang was totally inspired by “A Clockwork Orange.” I had more back story to them but I ran out of time. If I shoot “AFSL 2: A Few Screws Loose More.” I’ll get into them a bit more. The red and yellow color scheme is prevalent through the film; the purple reminded me of “Frakenhooker” or a multitude of 80’s movies.

CCF: Before this project, you were involved with some interesting things. Talk about your background a little bit.

CM: I have been working in Hollywood for a number of years. I worked at many Hollywood effects shops - Screaming Mad George, Gabe Bartalos, John Vulich of Optic Nerve, and many others. I jumped ship when I got the chance to work with artist Paul McCarthy about six years ago, and occasionally help other filmmakers and artist with bloody F/X stuff if I’m not too busy working on my own stuff.

CCF: One of the past projects you worked on was Stuart Gordon’s “Space Truckers.” What was your involvement with that and what was the experience like?

CM: That was my first job in the industry. I made tentacles and tubes for the creature suits. I made little molds for different things that went on the suits. I was the runner too, so I would go pick up and drop stuff off. I didn’t get to go to set in Ireland where they shot it, nothing that cool. SMG is a great guy and it was great to work for him being I grew up on a lot of movies he did F/C for.

CCF: Lastly, you played a creature in “Starcrypt,” right? That movie has actually been called one of the worst films ever on IMDb. That’s got to make you proud. (LOL)

CM: I still haven’t seen that movie. I sculpted the monster head with John Criswell’s guidance and we took the body suit from the monster from the movie “Dark Breed” and we altered it to be different. I had to make another creature head to be blown apart and we made all these different slimes and goo. It was fun to do. I think he had 50,000 dollars or something to make it? I spent about 2,000 dollars and I think my movies better. (LOL) That’s what happens sometimes when you follow the Hollywood rules, you end up with a crappy movie. The director of that film is a great guy. I would still like to see the movie.

CCF: All right. Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for being a part of the Polly Staffle universe.

- CCF, November 2008